Category: Gig posts

Galway’s Doom Metal festival returns on the 29th-30th of April with the 6th incarnation of Walpurgis Night and its strongest lineup yet. This years event for the first time will be spread across two nights with a warm-up gig and record fair opening proceedings in the Cellar on Saturday the 29th of April, and the main event in the Loft on Sunday the 30th. Walpurgis Night VI consists of the old, the new and the heaviest… a history lesson while look to the future of the Doom Metal produced on this emerald island.

Headlining the event, and making an extremely rare live appearance is Graveyard Dirt. Formed back in 1994, inspired by the early Peaceville doom/death sound Graveyard Dirt have remained dormant in the live scene the past decade since supporting Primordial and Mourning Beloveth in 2008, which for anyone fortunate enough to be in attendance was a great performance. They have written some of the best Doom Metal this island has ever produced. Re-emerging from their hiatus with 2015’s 3 track EP, “My Scourge, My Plague ” is a master work of Doom as are their earlier essentials ‘‘Shadows of old Ghosts’’ and ‘’For Grace and Damnation’’. But Graveyard Dirt aren’t the only band making a very rare appearance.
Second-to-the headliners TOME resurface from the swamps of Belfast.. Since releasing their split with Nomadic Rituals in 2015 the band have only played twice live. Their possessed brand of eerie blackened doom, TOME really do suck the listener in with their dark murky void cantations, which is especially apparent on their excellent demo released by Into The Void Records back in 2012.
Cork’s Soothsayer, are a new black metal influenced Atmospheric Doom band, on top form after just releasing their second EP “At this Great Depth” which displays great depths in their songwriting ability.
One of the most exciting new Irish metal bands to form recently. Belfast heavies Owlcrusher return to Galway after a crushingly unhinged appearance at last year’s Dark Arts Fest. After developing a new found momentum the band are now finished recording their first proper release, which after gaining attention for visceral live performances it’s great to see them finally emerge from a studio. Until its release though, anyone interested to hear their brand of sludge metal can still find their unreleased ‘The Spoiler’ recording on youtube.Genuflection, a new Doom Metal band from Galway with some very familiar faces from the city’s ever quietening hardcore punk scene. Genuflection arise from the ashes of ritualic Sludge Doom band Rites, a Galway favorite, who split back in 2013 with the release of Rites II. Genuflection is the heavier slower and more demented older brother of Rites which will be unveiled for the first time with their debut appearance at Walpurgis Night VI.
Sludge Groove merchants Ten Ton Slug need no introduction in Galway (or Ireland) at this stage. The band have risen very quickly in the scene with their energetic and tight live performances, and two well received releases. Its no secret that the band’s success is down to their relentless hard work which, quickly lead them to international appearances and landed them onto a packed New Blood Stage at Bloodstock last year, and after recently supporting Crowbar in Dublin and Belfast the band shows no signs of slowing down whatsoever. On the night will also perform Belfasts So Much for the Sun, Weeping Ulcer from Dublin, Slung from a Tree from Clare and Galway’s Stonecarver

The Warm up lineup includes Tension Head and Between The Lines and 1 more yet to be announced.

Walpurgis Night is May Day’s eve when witches meet and hold revels with their Gods. The night is the last chance for witches and their nefarious cohorts to stir up trouble before Spring reawakened the land.

HexenHaus Promotions are organizing their last gig this year – Hexmas Bash – which will be co-headlined by Corr Mhóna and Thy Worshiper. Corr Mhóna are a West Cork metal band. Their music is a blend of different genres, with doom and death metal elements more prominent. Corr Mhóna sing entirely in the Irish language and use a combination of harsh and cleanly sung vocals. They are inspired by many different bands and musical styles, and always attempt to combine these influences to create something new. Formed in 2009, Corr Mhóna consists of two pairs of brothers. The band has played gigs in both Ireland and the U.K. with bands such as Mael Mórdha, The Wounded Kings, For Ruin, Sirocco, Old Corpse Road and Brigantia.Corr Mhóna released a debut e.p. in 2010 entitled ‘Corrguíneacht’. After a hiatus (while some band members worked abroad), Corr Mhóna started gigging again, and began writing new material. This material has since come to fruition, in the form of their debut album ‘Dair’.(Oct 4th, 2014).
Thy Worshiper was started in 1993 in Wroclaw, Poland by Marcin Gasiorowski. In 1996 they released their first album ‘Popiol [Dust] (Introibo ad Altare Dei)’. The music was an innovatory mix of black metal and eastern European folk/traditional melodies served with a nostalgic twist. The album has won critical acclaim and achieved a cult status in the Polish underground metal scene. The band went through a few years of hiatus and then returned in 2005 with a demo and a year later released a new album called ‘Signum’. The new album kept Thy Worshiper’s spirit but frequent use of blast beats, double kicks and high tempos made it much heavier than its predecessor. Shortly after Gasiorowski left Poland and settled in Dublin, Ireland. In 2009 Thy Worshiper was recreated once again. The new material follows Thy Worshiper’s signature concept of mixing metal with folk/traditional melodies and interweaving heavy parts with slower acoustic moments. Since their first album Thy Worshiper has been using Polish as it is the language most suited to the pagan sounds of Central and Eastern Europe.
Since 2010 the band been actively gigging in Ireland and Europe and has released full length album Carna Dzika Czerwien [Black, Savage, Red] (Feb, 2014) and MLP – Ozimina [Winter Corn] (Sep, 2015). Also performing on the night will be Zylum (industrial/black metal, Nenagh, Tipperary), Psychopigs (hardcore/metal, Galway) and Ten Ton Slug (groove/sludge metal, Galway). Galway Advertiser

WITH HALLOWEEN almost upon us, how appropriate that music from rock’s dark side should make its presence felt in Galway through London based doom metal band Ossiyan.

Ossiyan will headline the Fuzzed Out Sessions, organised by HexenHaus Promotions, in The Cellar, Eglinton Street, tomorrow at 8.30pm. The band will play songs from its debut album, Hardrada, which showcases their mix of traditional stoner/doom riffs with mountain sized drums, and spoken verse, which takes inspiration, not only from heavy metal, but also classical texts, art, and ancient cultures – not suprising it was named after Harald Hardrada, the last of the great Viking monarchs. Chris Jennings of the Worship Metal website, called Hardrada “a triumphant exercise in crushing Doom…with hypnotically leaden riffs and coarse vocals.
Support is from Electric Taurus (Dublin ), No Mans Land (Limerick ), and Weed Priest (Galway)Galway Advertiser

Dark Arts Fest in Cellar on Saturday 18th of July To fill in the niche not yet covered by Galway International Arts Festival. and to accommodate the fans of darker and heavier side of art – On Saturday, July the 18th HexenHaus Productions brings the finest Irish extreme music acts to Cellar Bar downstairs in the form of Dark Arts Fest. All day event will consist of 3 parts: Record Fair, Dark Ambient/ Noise stage and Heavy Metal stage. Dark Arts starts at 11am with Record Fair for all kind of music lovers with big selection of famous and rare Vinyls and CD’s. At 6pm the event will continue with Dark Ambient / Noise experience enhanced with original visual projections. Four underground artists will be performing:
Luxury Mollusc (Dublin),
Harsh Discipline (Dublin),
Ohdaith (Drogheda)
Ruairi O’Baoighill (Galway).
At 9pm heavy metal mayhem will start headlined by the famous Belfast death metal act – Overoth. Overoth have been around for 10 years now, they have released a demo “Pathway To Demise” (2006), an EP “Death Personified” (2007) and a full length album “Kingdom Of Shadows (2010) and have played gigs in Ireland, UK and mainland Europe with the likes of Bolt Thrower, Napalm Death, Obituary, Sodom and many more. According to Metal Rules website, “their brand of no frills, in-your-face death metal is full of twists and turns, technical innovation, and bone- crunching riffage”. Kingdom Of Shadows by Overoth
5 more metal acts will also be performing on the night:
Nomadic Rituals – sonic terrorist sludge metal masters from Belfast,
Brigantia (Tipperary) – an undoubtedly finest act for Black Sabbath and Pentagram lovers,
Zylum (Tipperary) – who play their own mix of industrial and doom metal,
Unyielding Love – a very well received fresh metal act from Belfast,
Weed Priest – local purveyors of stoner doom metal.Record Fair: 11pm,Dark Ambient/Noise – 6pm,Heavy Metal – 9pm. Late Bar.

VENUS SLEEPS, the Dublin psychedelic doom metal band will launch their new album Dead Sun Worship with a show in The Cellar Bar, Eglinton Street, this Saturday from 8.30pm.

Venus Sleeps was founded by Sie Carrol in 2012 as a solo project, but the positive response to a demo recording he made convinced him to assemble a band, enlisting bassist Sean O’Connor (ex-Utopian Ruins, Petrochenical Accelerator ), drummer Fergal Malone, and second guitarist Steven Anderson (ex-Cruachan, Yurt ). They has since enjoyed comparisons to Electric Wizard, Hawkwind, Pentagram and Black Sabbath, and performed with Tribulation, Slomatics, Lecherous Gaze, Headless Kross, and Wizards of Firetop Mountain. Dead Sun Worship has been described by the Doom Metal Heaven website as having songs the “cleverly twist and swirl whilst rarely losing their beard-trembling momentum…and a droning psychedelic undercurrent that takes your mind to far-flung corners of the galaxy.” Dead Sun Worship by Venus Sleeps The gig is organized by HexenHaus Productions. Support is from Galway doom metallersWeed Priest and Drogheda dark ambient project Oh Daith. Doors open 8:30pm. Admission is €4. Galway Advertiser

WALPURGIS NIGHT was a May Day’s eve festival when witches met and held revels with their gods to stir up trouble before the spring came. Sounds like a good night to hold a metal gig.

The fourth annual music fest Walpurgis Night this year will be held at The Loft (formerly Kelly’s upstairs ) on Bank Holiday Sunday May 3 from 5pm, featuring Irish doom metal, sludge, and trash metal bands, as well as hard rock, heavy blues, and punk acts. Headliners will be Dublin’s Wizards Of Firetop Mountain, whose music fuses hard rock and stoner rock.
Also playing are fellow Dubliners Electric Taurus, who play old school heavy blues mixed with more modern stoner rock/grunge, and doom metal.Electric Taurus/Prehistoric Pigs by Electric Taurus
The line up is completed by a third Dublin act, Nautilus, Tipperary doom metallers Brigantia; thrash metal band Twisted Wrath; Negativ Result, whose sound is a kind of groovier Machine Head like thrash, Connemara sludge metal band Ten Ton Slug; and punk/hardcore bands Psychopigs and Kamikaze.The event is organised by HexenHaus Productions. Admission is €5.Galway Advertiser